Study on the prediction method and the flow characteristics of gas-liquid two-phase flow patterns in the suction chamber
International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow
ISSN: 0961-5539
Article publication date: 26 November 2021
Issue publication date: 17 June 2022
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose a prediction method of gas-liquid two-phase flow patterns and reveal the flow characteristics in the suction chamber of a centrifugal pump.
Design/methodology/approach
A transparent model pump was experimentally studied, and the gas-liquid two-phase flow in the pump was numerically simulated based on the Eulerian–Eulerian heterogeneous flow model. The numerical simulation method was verified from three aspects: the flow pattern in the suction chamber, the gas spiral length and the external characteristics of the pump. The two-phase flow in the suction chamber was studied in detail by using the numerical simulation method.
Findings
There are up to eight flow patterns in the suction chamber. However, at a certain rotational speed, only six flow patterns are observed at the most. At some rotational speeds, only four flow patterns appear. The gas spiral length has little relationship with the gas flow rate. It decreases with the increase of the liquid flow rate and increases with the increase of the rotational speed. The spiral flow greatly increases the turbulence intensity in the suction chamber.
Originality/value
A method for predicting the flow pattern was proposed. Eight flow patterns in the suction chamber were identified. The mechanism of gas-liquid two-phase flow in the suction chamber was revealed. The research results have reference values for the stable operation of two-phase flow pumps and the optimization of suction chambers.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51306087), the Natural Science Fund of Jiangsu Province of China (Grant No. BK20191361) and Postgraduate Research and Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province (Grant No. SJCX21_0493).
Declaration of interests.
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Citation
Shao, C., Bao, N., Wang, S. and Zhou, J. (2022), "Study on the prediction method and the flow characteristics of gas-liquid two-phase flow patterns in the suction chamber", International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, Vol. 32 No. 8, pp. 2700-2718. https://doi.org/10.1108/HFF-08-2021-0588
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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